Two men have been charged with attacks on four Washington state substations that left thousands without power on Christmas Day.
According to the criminal complaint, filed Saturday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Tacoma, the duo told investigators their plan — which left people cold and dark over the holiday weekend — was to take a Stealing a cash register at a local store.
The overnight attacks on Pierce County’s electrical substations cut power to approximately 14,000 customers during the holiday and caused approximately $3 million in damage.
Matthew Greenwood, 32, and Jeremy Crahan, 40, were arrested Saturday and charged with conspiracy to damage power equipment and possession of an unregistered firearm.
Jeremy Crahan, 40, was one of two men arrested and charged with attacking electrical substations in Washington state over the holiday
The four power plants in Washington State were attacked within hours on Christmas Day
The four substations attacked were the Graham and Elk Plain substations, and the Kapowsin and Hemlock substations.
Crahan and Greenwood face up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy and 10 years for possession of an unregistered firearm.
Prosecutors plan to request that the two men be held in federal prison, according to a local newspaper.
Cell phone records and surveillance video initially identified the men as potential suspects, according to US Attorney for the Western District of Washington Nick Brown.
Photos taken by the defendant at one of Tacoma Power’s substations show a pickup truck and a man at the scene. A similar truck was linked to the incidents.
Officials also said a search uncovered distinctive clothing belonging to the suspects.
These photos were taken at one of the Washington substations attacked at Christmas
A Tacoma Power team works on a substation damaged by vandals early on Christmas morning
During the search, agents also found two unregistered short-barreled weapons.
One of the confiscated guns was fitted with a makeshift silencer.
Crahan and Greenwood will appear in US District Court in Tacoma Tuesday.
Other fees may be pending.
Last week, a law enforcement official claimed that those who carried out the attack may have tried to “send a message.”
These unregistered weapons were also found by law enforcement during a search
Sergeant Darren Moss, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, said last week the attackers may have been trying to “send a message.”
Sergeant Darren Moss, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, said the agency is investigating the incidents.
“We can’t confirm that,” Sgt. Moss said of the possible motive.
“But of course we will see it that way. Four of them in one day. On Christmas day. That screams, “I want to make a point.” What point do you want to make? I do not know.’
Law enforcement was first alerted to the attacks after a worker alerted them to a “break-in” at one of the substations.
Deputies found evidence of forced entry and damaged equipment, but nothing was taken from the facility.
Just hours after the first call came in, MPs were called to the second substation to report another break-in.
Deputies investigated the third and fourth break-ins at about the same time, also with nothing taken but damaged equipment.
Before arresting Crahan and Greenwood, officers called the incident “premeditious” and “criminal.”
“It was one person who chose to disrupt the livelihoods of so many people on a beautiful vacation,” Tacoma Power’s Joe Wilson told Fox13 Seattle.
Substations in Washington state were vandalized and 14,000 people lost power just two weeks after seven across America were deliberately sabotaged
A fire at one of the substations cut power to residents of the nearby parishes of Kapowsin and Graham, which together have a combined population of 37,000.
Most of those affected by the outages were in southeast Tacoma.
Power was finally restored for most customers by midday, but many walked off the files in the dark and cold all day.
Nearly 8,000 customers in Puget had their power restored by 5 a.m., officials said.
Power was finally restored for most customers by midday, but many walked off the files in the dark and cold all day
There have been eight attacks on power plants in Washington and Oregon in the past few weeks.
The attacks were preceded by a federal police warning of a threat to the local power grid.
Tacoma Public Utilities has not described the specific nature of the attack other than a tentative timeframe over the Christmas weekend.
MPs in recent weeks have been reluctant to describe the attacks as domestic terrorism, without naming suspects.
However, many believe that this is the case.
A Tacoma Power crew placed this new padlock on a substation gate after one that had been cut off to break into the substation was taken by law enforcement
Photos show a fenced off area at one of the four sites targeted near Tacoma Sunday. The trope of attacking energy infrastructure, one expert said in the wake of the attacks, “is an old tenet of the American far right.”
In December, Washington state law enforcement sources said they received a memo from the FBI warning them of possible attacks in the area.
Prior to the Washington attacks, North Carolina experienced a web attack that may have been sparked by opponents of a drag show.
The shooting attack took place in the small town of Southern Pines on December 3 and took power out of more than 40,000 residents.
Department of Homeland Security officials have warned that extremists have had credible, concrete plans to attack power infrastructure “since at least 2020.”
Eight power plant attacks have been recorded in Washington and near Oregon in the last few weeks, prompting them to come under FBI scrutiny
Others have argued that the US power grid – which includes over 7,300 facilities and connects more than 145 million Americans – needs better security to prevent such attacks.
The trope of attacking power infrastructure, the grid, or critical infrastructure “is an old tenet of the American far right,” said Ali Winston, a journalist who has tracked terrorist threats.